fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, September 2, 2nd period]

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Ethics [Thursday, September 2, 2nd period]

Anakin walked into his classroom precisely on time and gave the students assembled there an appraising glance-as the door clicked shut behind him. "I'm Master Anakin Skywalker," he said in a voice that was intended to carry. "You may address me either as Master Skywalker or Professor Skywalker. This is Ethics, and we're going to skip the introductions--I'll figure out who you are, if I don't recognize you already--and move straight to our first discussion."

His cloak flared out behind him as he handed out the syllabus. "Today's topic," he said, pointing to the top of the page, "is self sacrifice: knowing the difference between saving people and being a pretentious twit."

Anakin wasn't a great believer in softening his language.

"Any time I ask a a group of people what they would do to save someone they love, they blither on about how they would set the world on fire, lie, cheat, steal, kill, die, et cetera, et cetera. I've been at this school five years now and realize that half of you have probably already been put into this situation. I'm never in a mood to hear adolescent ramblings about how wonderful you were or might hypothetically be."

He leaned back against his desk. "What I want to know is what would make you walk away. When do you decide that the risk isn't worth the cost?"

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Wesley knew the answer right away, but it was not one that was going to cast him in a particularly flattering light.

"Well, I myself would be rather hard-pressed to identify a situtaion in which I would be inclined to sacrifice myself," he admitted. Then elaborated, "I - I used to be rather certain that if ever a threat arose against my Slayers - that is to say, the girls I was honor-bound to protect - that I would be willing to do whatever necessary to ensure their safety. However, the, er, reality of being present in a life-or-death situation is rather unnerving, and one's personal convictions do tend to go out the window when confronted with that."

Basically he was confessing that he chickened out. Smart, Wes. That should endear him to his professor.

It had been a while since Jason had seen Wesley, and he felt kind of bad about that, so he was glad they had a class together.

"Have you ever been in a life-or-death situation?" he asked. "'Cause it's hard to know how you'd really handle that kind of confrontation until you've been in a moment like that."

Well, there'd been this one time that he and Giles were held hostage and threatened with torture and Wes had just started telling the demon everything he knew. Since he hadn't known much, it didn't end up being all that harmful, but still. Not the bravest thing in the world.

"Yes," he said flatly.

Then, thinking he might as well do some damage control on how much he embarrassed himself, Wes added, "I - I simply believe that there's a difference between one's ethical viewpoint and what one actually does. The moral thing to do is usually apparent, but it's rather difficult to willingly allow a demon to remove your kneecaps when you can avoid it."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with wanting to keep your kneecaps attached to you," Jason said, trying to be reassuring. "If you're not the kind of person who'd attack back if someone tried to mess with you, there's no shame in trying to get away. That's protecting yourself too."

Anakin found the honesty remarkably refreshing.

"There's no need to be ashamed of listening to the instincts your body has to save yourself," he said quietly. "You work with Slayers?"

Wes blinked. So the professor... actually liked that remark? Well - good! Unexpected, but good.

"Er - thank you," he said brightly. How weird that the one time he didn't actively try to kiss ass, he actually managed to win some points. "I did, yes. You're familiar with them?"

"I've been here for a while," he replied with a nod. "I've met a few Slayers."

Well, Faith three times, Buffy three times...

"Oh, which ones?" he asked, intrigued. "I myself worked with two Slayers, and I've studied quite a bit on the ones I haven't had a chance to meet, so I'll likely be familiar with them."

"Do you know of Buffy Summers?" Anakin replied.

"Oh, yes, actually," Wes blurted. "I was actually her Watcher for a while, in fact. Well, I assisted as her Watcher." Because the Watchers' Council isn't all that big on hiring sixteen-year-olds for the big jobs for some reason. Weird.

Anakin blinked. "They let a peer serve as an adviser?"

That seemed vaguely insane to Anakin.

"It was an experimental trial," he explained. "I was top of my class, and the Watchers' Council felt I could be useful in the field. In an advisory capacity, that is. The girls already had a Watcher, but I was meant to observe and assist minimally."

"How did that work out?" Anakin asked.

Since Wesley was here and not in California, Anakin had drawn his own conclusion.

Well... This was a teacher he was talking to, and he didn't particularly want to admit it, but this guy kind of scared him, and he didn't want to get caught lying...

"Not particularly well," he admitted. "There were... rule enforcement problems."

Anakin smiled. "I knew several Buffies," he said, forgetting just how odd it might sound to someone not used to living multiple years in Fandom. "She had rule following problems."

Wes blinked. "Several...? Oh, you mean from different timelines, yes? Well, yes, she isn't all that compliant. But the bulk of the problems came from Fai - I mean, the other Slayer I was in charge of."

"Faith?" Anakin replied. "I've known three versions of her as well."

Anakin had been here a while.

Given what they'd talked about on Tuesday, Scully couldn't help but give Wesley a sympathetic look. He was seriously hard on himself. Especially if that was his first field assignment; panic wasn't uncommon.

"If it had been someone who you really cared about whose life was at stake-- your mom, maybe-- do you think you would have acted differently?"

He thought about his mother, probably the only person he'd even consider such a question for. "Perhaps," Wesley said slowly, thinking about it. "I - I'd like to think so, at least. Though I suppose in the actual situation I might be surprised by what I'd do."

"What about you?" he asked. "Are there people that you would sacrifice yourself to protect?"

"My mom," which would explain why Scully's mind had gone there, really. "My best friend." She frowned, biting her lip. "I'm fairly sure that if it was someone younger and helpless, that it would be instinct." Trying to keep Kevin Cryder from falling into a garbage shredder, for instance, had required a certain amount of risk. She sighed. "I'd like to think it was anyone who needed it, but honestly, it would probably just be playing along until I could get loose or get away and get someone else out of there too. I have a hard time picturing pure sacrifice situations."

Wes nodded. "Yes, I assume that would be my strategy as well. Though with the exception of my mother, I don't really have many people who I would be particularly compelled to protect." Or really any people, but that would just sound lame.

Scully was trying to separate what she'd do as a (former) FBI agent, and what she'd do now that she was an individual without back-up or a government agency's resources. Especially one who was much younger than she'd been the last time she'd been in a life-or-death situation. "I know what I'd want to do, what my ideals demand. Whether I'd manage to do it now..." She grimaced. "I vote for not being placed in that position any time soon."

"Yes, quite," Wes agreed. "Being trained to protect someone and actually laying down one's life for her are two entirely different things. One nice thing about no longer being a Watcher is not having to make that kind of decision anymore."

Scully thought about that, and had to admit, "It's a lot less stressful..." Ahem. "And there's other ways to help people, or deal with problems. Not everyone has to be on the front lines."

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